Fantasy The MPC Rushes Story, Cont.

[Arkadious]

Foreword: This RP is a continuation of a previously established story telling exercise and as such may not make much sense at first to anyone new reading thru it, but if you are interested in joining, please send me a PM and we can try and get you up to speed!!! Till then, safe travels!!!


on to the story...


-The last thing that the Writer saw was the Sitting room vanishing in a blur after she picked up his pocket watch, which must have triggered her sudden jaunt thru, what, time? Space? She didn't know Where she was or even When she was. Taking a moment to observe her surroundings, she noted that she was in what appeared to be an empty and dusty warehouse. There were a series of footprints near here, fresh. Maybe the warehouse wasn't so empty...Quietly she got to her feet and followed the footprints down a hallway and peered around a corner where candle light greeted her, as well as the sudden embrace of someone familiar. Looking around, she saw the rest of her comrades, all of them! Genevieve, Bolt, Altamonte and Alaster!!! All here, alive and well, if looking just as perplexed as she was. Perhaps she would find the answers in the two objects she clung to; her Book and his watch...

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

"I'm so glad everyone is all right," Lisbeth said, looking to each of her companions, "But what happened? Where are we? When are we? I don't understand. Arkadious... he did something to my Book that brought us here, but I don't know what or where here is."

 

[slee77]

"Welcome to one of the many safe houses I have scattered across time lines. We should be ok here….for a while anyway. It will at the very least allow us to regroup. Be warned though we aren't in that perfect bubble that the Curator gave us!"What was normal for you wherever or when ever you are from may not work the same way here as it did well, anywhere else.""Especially you Grim! So watch it!" Altamonte walks over with a smile and slowly removes the pocket watch from her hand."I will be needing that though."

 

[Genevieve Moulin]

"Yes, thank goodness everyone's all right," Genevieve said, still breathless from their strange journey. Her hair had fallen out of its bun, tumbling in long tendrils down her back. Looking down, she found her clothes spotted with ink. She gave Altamonte a sidelong glance to assure herself he was the one with soul intact. She had placed trust and withheld it in all the wrong places, it would seem, and she was no longer sure she trusted her own judgement.


"You'll probably want this, too," she said, blushing slightly and holding out his worn-edged journal.

 

[slee77]

"Yeah…about that. Look..Ughhh you didn't read. That is. You didn't Look through all of that did you?" He was slightly flustered, slightly embarrassed.He was still cleaning blood and dirt off him with a towel and had a sort of pained look on his face.

 

[slee77]

"I guarantee you this Grim…I shot you here…it's game over so just watch yourself. Like I said whatever abilities you might have had may not apply here…or may not manifest in the same exact way.Which is why we should re group and maybe keep moving..lots of timelines…lots of history to explore"

 

[Genevieve Moulin]

Genevieve sighed softly. Some things don't change, even in a new world.


"I read...a bit. To see if there was a way to help you. But it's nothing, darling," she replied to Altamonte with what she hoped was a casual toss of her head. "I certainly wish Bernard were here. I think we could all use a drink."

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

"I'd Write us up some, but honestly... I don't think I should be doing any Writing for a while," Lisbeth said, dismissing her Book into the ether.


"I can't believe I fell for that stupid ruse," she growled, her voice a touch bitter, "All He needed was a new body, and I played right into His hands. All He needed to do was tweak things a little, inflict Altamonte with a little paralysis so he couldn't explain what was happening to him, and I foolishly jumped right in to try and help."


She sat heavily on a wooden box. She still felt awful after what she had done to try to bring "Fitzgerald" back, and now she felt even worse for having been played for a fool.

 

[slee77]

"Well good news on that front! Open bar! I have plenty of things to drink…and a perk of being a time traveler is getting a vintage..is well not that difficult. I have a large selection in the cabinet over there and the glasses should be above it. Champagne is chilled next to it in the fridge. I have some wonderful vintages. If Scotch is your thing that bronze globe next to Grim opens up to some of the best in Islay! All the comforts of home right?!" "Does any one have any questions…seems kinda silent for this bunch." Altamonte walks over to his notebook and thumbs through a few pages and ear marks them..trying to keep busy.

 

[ArtBlott]

Quinnette Blott felt at herself shakily, checking for damage. This wasn't, if she recalled correctly, the first time she had been yanked out of place by a foreign force, but it still left a sick feeling in her gut.


Her crow was fine, standing on the ground and watching her patiently, a wooden fountain pen in its beak. Blott took it gratefully, stashing it back in her vests' inner pocket, next to an empty glass ink bottle. She smiled tightly. All was well...almost.


She turned slightly away from the group, unbuttoning her left sleeve. She grimaced. The 'tattoo's on that arm were burning and itching, trying to spread. She buttoned the cuff back up quickly and turned back to the group.


"Thank you for helping us," she said softly to Fitzgerald.

 

[slee77]

"Ok…so I am clear…who is HE?" Because I would love to pay the guy who paralyzed me, infused me with time travel again and threw me into the middle of the Normandy beach landing a little visit. "

 

[Genevieve Moulin]

"Champagne, please, darling. I believe you know what I like," Genevieve called, trying valiantly to keep things light. She didn't like to imagine what Altamonte had been through, alone and without his faculties.


We all seem so changed, she thought to herself, it just isn't yet clear how much.


"I, too, would like to know who this Other Altamonte is. Lisbeth, he called you Mother."

 

[slee77]

Altamonte walked over and took the knife out of his belt opened his beat up fridge and pulled out a 1893 Verve Clicquot. He grinned and sliced the top off for theatrics as he poured it into a flute. "Im guessing he only called her that because she "created him" ala Mary Shelly's Frankenstein. In the future if you could maybe…not create me that would be welcome." He handed the champagne flute the Genevieve letting his hand linger a little to long on hers and then pulled back.."Damn" "I think I might have gotten a little carried away with the slicing" Altamonte then walked away again embarrassed and began to aimlessly fiddle with anything it seemed he could find..intently listening to any conversation.

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

Lisbeth sighed. It looked like it was story time again.


"I'll try to keep this simple," she began, "but I don't know how successful I'll be. This is a story that spans many worlds and timelines, one that I thought I had finally escaped from.


You already know that, as a Writer, I'm in the business of world-building. As I said before, I'm not really sure if I'm actually creating these worlds, or if I'm just uncovering something that was already there and adding new depth to them with my Creations. There are a lot of us out there, Writers and Books, all of us Creating magnificent, fantastical Stories across many eras and settings... but there are rules. 'With great power comes great responsibility.' You know that little chestnut? Came from one of the greatest Writers I've ever known. We can't use our power for personal gain. We can't interfere too much in worlds not our own. And, above all, in the worlds we do create, there must be balance. Light and dark. Love and hatred. Good and evil.


Toward the beginning of my career, I naively decided that I wanted to Create something that would put all other Writers to shame. In my pride I thought that I could Create the greatest heroes ever known, the most powerful and the most pure. In order to do that, however, I also needed to Create the ultimate evil. A being of unfathomable corruption for my heroes to fight against... Thanatos. I had truly intended for my great heroes to prevail, and vanquish Thanatos in the end. Then their Story would be over, the heroes would fade into history, and all would be in balance again. I was still in the middle of their Story. It was my greatest work, one that I had worked on for so long. But then... that was when I started being pursued, I assume by the Knights. They invaded my Stories, corrupted them... So I had to abandon the Story, and leave it unfinished. Then somehow... Thanatos escaped his Story. He began to pursue me as well, trying at every turn to kill me. I was forced to... Erase the Story. I took the pages from my Book and I burned them, and when I did I saw Thanatos burn before my very eyes. I thought it was over..."


She trailed off, grief writ plain across her face.


"I'm so sorry," she choked out, burying her face in her hands, "I've dragged all of you into this mess!"

 

[slee77]

"It's ok..what ever the cause is maybe all of us can help solve it.Have you considered another possibility? Maybe you aren't writing things into being at all. Maybe that isn't your power? Is it possible that you have some form of subliminal pre cognitive amnesia? In other words You see things before they happen it is subplanted in your mind and that seems to direct you into making it happen and then like some form of immediate whiplash from that power you forget and then when it happens you feel responsible for the act even though it was already going to happen regardless to your actions. It would be a vicious circle but one that could be an answer to your questions and could take some of the weight off your shoulders?"

 

[Genevieve Moulin]

Genevieve crossed to the box where Lisbeth sat, placing her champagne flute carefully on the dusty floor and sitting down next to her.


"This isn't your fault. Look around this room and show me one person whose story hasn't gotten away from them somehow. We'll all fix this together. Besides," she said, "you're the expert! You know all his weaknesses--you Wrote them. We just need a plan."


She reached down to pick up her champagne, once again noticing the spots of ink on her skirt and brushing at them a bit. "Lisbeth, is this your Ink? Because it seems to be... spreading."

 

[Arkadious]

-As the Writer ponders over what Fitzgerald just said, she takes a moment to take in the surroundings. Fitz's "hidey hole", as he boasted, seemed to be set in an abandoned warehouse, with her companions and herself currently occupying one of the back rooms. Cobwebs and dust provided the decor, with the old brick walls seemingly in disrepair but obviously structurally sound, turn of the century arches adorning the doorways and windows. As Genevieve crossed to floor to consult Lisbeth, dust kicks up around her bare feet, uncovering lines inlaid in the creaky floor boards.

 

[slee77]

"Hey uhh everyone I forget to add be carful about the boxes in this place….don't ummm jostle them too much…and y know what you may not want to be overly curious about the ones with red writing on them. Just becareful in general."…He turns to look at Genevieve.."That means you Red." He smiled a bit and continued to move a few things.

 

[ArtBlott]

Blott ears perked up, proverbially, of course. Spreading ink? She checked her arm. She checked her crow. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve. Nothing.


"Let me see," she said, darting to Genevieve's side.

 

[Arkadious]

-As Blot darts over to Genevieve's side to look at the curious ink splotches, the Reaper fumes and hits the top of the counter with his fist before storming over to join the group huddled on the floor. Lisbeth looks down at her hands, her Book in one, pocket watch in the other. The Book is open to the page that was last Written in before everyone was whisked to this new Time, new Place, the blood used for ink still drying.

 

[Genevieve Moulin]

Genevieve held her skirt out away from her body slightly so Blott could examine the rapidly growing ink splotches. Blott took the fabric in her hands as Genevieve craned around to face Altamonte.


"Really, Fitz?" she said, chin tilted down, eyebrows arched. "You're going to tell me not to look in the boxes and expect I'm going to let that go? What are you hiding in here, darling? Besides us, of course."

 

[slee77]

"I assure you no bodies are in these boxes! Not any live ones any way and I DO NOT intend to put any of you in these boxes..well maybe not all of you." He looked playfully at Genevieve and grinned."I just have sensitive things in these..some are more sensitive than others and some could cause harm.I have stashes like these all over the place in different timelines and era's.Speaking of we should probably consider gearing up and moving on soon. I can't be sure how long we will be safe here but it doesn't look like anyone has touched any of my things or even bothered anything on the perimeter. That said I'd rather not take chances. I am used to traveling alone and now I have a lot more people to look after"

 

[ArtBlott]

"Do you have clothes in one of those boxes?" Blott waved her crow over, trying to act casual and failing miserably. "Because I am going to have to set this skirt on fire."


Maybe that was too casual, she thinks, but there really wasn't any time to spare with explanations. Her crow ruffled up, and she carefully pulled a feather from its wing.


"Now," she asked, twirling the feather in her fingers, "Do you want to take it off first?"

 

[Lisbeth Walpurgis]

Lisbeth forced herself to calm down and focus. She looked at the ink that Genevieve had spoken of that was staining the woman's clothing and, true enough, beginning to spread, and which apparently needed to be burned.


"It's... That is, I don't think that's my ink," she said, "but I also don't know what that Arkadious Grimoire did to my Book when he sent us here."


She gestured to the page he had written in blood in the open Book before her, then looked at the pocket watch in her other hand.


"Oh. Right. This was his. After you all disappeared, Thanatos grabbed Arkadious and dragged him into whatever vortex he was sent through. Then I picked up this pocket watch and ended up here with you."


She edged away from Genevieve and Blott.


"So, um, why do we need to burn her clothing?"

 

[slee77]

Fitzgerald stood there slightly amused but ready for anything. "Well, Red! Off with the clothes I guess?!"